Earth Afire (The First Formic War 2)

Mazer undressed quickly, keeping on his undershirt, shorts, and socks. He left his fatigues in the dirt. Fatani and Patu stripped down as well. Mazer then removed a first-aid kit from under his seat and took out a bottle of surgical antiseptic. He poured it into Patu and Fatani's cupped hands and told them to wash their hands and neck thoroughly. Mazer then did the same. The liquid was cold and brown and smelled like a hospital. When they finished they used gauze loaded with the antiseptic to wipe down their helmets, boots, and weapons.

Mazer then grabbed another of the flares and pulled the igniter pin. The end of the flare spewed hot sparks. Mazer bent down and set the sparks to the clothes. They caught fire and burned. He tossed the flare into a nearby rice paddy, where it sizzled and extinguished.

"Now what?" said Reinhardt. "We've got no one on the radio. No extra clothes. Barely any weapons."

"We need extra clothing," said Mazer. "More of our skin is exposed now. And there could be hundreds of troops out there putting that mist in the air. We need to cover up."

"We need to reassess what the hell we're doing out here," said Reinhardt. "We're not equipped for aerial combat, Mazer. This is out of our league now. Rescue effort is one thing. Aerial assaults is another. We are officially over our heads here."

"Everyone's over their head," said Mazer. "Nobody's prepared for this."

"If we go back to base, they'll confiscate the HERC," said Fatani. "We'll be out of the fight."

"We're not armed for a fight," said Reinhardt. "That's my point. Load this baby with missiles and bigger guns, and it can do some good. As a rescue aircraft, we're target practice. We need to give this back to the Chinese and let them use it for what it was made for. This is their resource, not ours."

"We can still do

some good out here," said Patu. "There were a lot of people on the ground back there. Still on foot. We need to get them centrally located, away from the chaos. Up to the makeshift hospital maybe. At least until they can be extracted properly."

"There isn't going to be a hospital," said Reinhardt. "Did you miss the events of the last twenty minutes? Those medevacs are down, Patu. Toast. No one's building a hospital. Right now we're it. If we take those people up to the hospital, they're no better off up there than where they are."

A beeping noise sounded in Mazer's helmet.

Reinhardt turned to the dash, suddenly alert. "I got two incomings. Moving fast. Chinese fighters."

Mazer could hear their jet engines now. He looked up and saw them coming from the south, flying low, screaming across the sky. They flew almost directly overhead a moment later. One of them opened fire at a cluster of alien troop carriers in the distance. The other fighter launched a missile, which hit its target. A troop carrier exploded, its wreckage twisting, falling, burning. Mazer and the others couldn't help but cheer.

Then the tables turned. All of the alien aircraft in the vicinity suddenly changed course, as if moving as one organism, and converged on the Chinese fighters. Mazer quickly put on his helmet and zoomed in, following the dogfight. The Chinese fighters saw the danger and climbed, trying to shake their pursuers, banking left and right. The smaller alien skimmers, which likely only held a single pilot, were much faster and more maneuverable than the troop carriers. A cluster of the skimmers soon caught up with one of the fighters and fired in unison. The Chinese fighter exploded, sending a spray of shrapnel and fire in every direction.

Mazer and the others went quiet, watching the burning wreckage cascade down from the sky.

"We're over our heads here, Mazer," Reinhardt repeated. "We should talk with the Chinese. They'll be desperate for help now. They'll put us back out here."

Patu, Fatani, and Reinhardt watched him, waiting for him to make a decision. Good sense said to go. The sooner they armed the HERC, the sooner someone could be in the air with it, putting it to good use. He looked south. He could still see people coming down from the hills, fleeing the lander on foot, scattering across the landscape in groups of four or less, completely disorganized. Mazer couldn't see their faces from this distance, but he knew what he would see if he could. Fear, grief, confusion, helplessness.

"We need to move as many people up to that farmhouse as we can," said Mazer. "We can't leave them out here unorganized. It doesn't matter if the medevacs are down. We can make it a hospital."

"We don't have supplies," said Reinhardt.

"We have a few," said Mazer. "And we have more medical training than any of them likely do. We can help. And we can organize the ones who are unhurt to help as well. These people are fragmented and terrified. They need to gather, get their bearings, and get out of the open. Who knows how much of that defoliant has been sprayed. They could run right into a cloud of it. The best place for them is up high, out of the valleys, where there's more wind. That farmhouse is as good a place as any."

"We're not a transporter," said Reinhardt. "This thing can only take a few people at once."

"Then we'll take a few people at once," said Mazer. He climbed up into the cockpit. "Take us up. Fatani, watch the skies for incomings. Patu, you and I will help the survivors into the HERC and get them fastened in."

They all acknowledged, and Reinhardt took them up again.

They flew south but didn't have to go far. They landed near a family running across a field. The woman had an infant in her arms. Both she and the baby were crying. The father carried two toddlers, both of them clinging desperately to his neck. The children were maybe two and three years old. The family was poor and barefoot and dirty and terrified. They came to the HERC without hesitating. Mazer and Patu were out and helping them inside. The children were frightened and screaming. The mother huddled with her infant inside, knees up, trembling.

When everyone was secure, Reinhardt took them up again. They didn't go far before he was setting the HERC down once more, this time for an older couple. Each of them was carrying a bag. Their clothes were muddy and ripped. They looked as if they were still in a state of shock. Mazer and Patu helped them inside.

"We've only got room for one or two more," said Reinhardt.

Mazer saw a group of five people running toward them, waving their arms.

"Wait!" they were shouting. "Wait for us." They were crying and desperate.

"We can't fit all those people," Reinhardt said to Mazer.